Cress on Oak Creek — Restaurant in Sedona

Do not let the reputation and allure of Cress and L’auberge fool you - this is literally the last restaurant in Sedona that you should look to visit. I am never one to write reviews or make a stink out of a dining situation but my meal at Cress last evening was undoubtedly the worst dining experience I’ve ever had in my life. I’m incredibly easy going when it comes to restaurant service and food quality, giving the staff the benefit of the doubt, so it’s out of my comfort zone to write this. A situation would have to anger me an awful lot to inspire me to take my thoughts to a review forum, but that was how bad the situation at Cress got. The scene was almost out of a terrible comedy movie and from reading some of the reviews listed by others, this seems to be an unfortunately recurring theme…

When we arrived at Cress on time for our 8:15 reservation, the host informed us we would need to wait 10-15 minutes to be seated despite the fact that there were three empty tables set and ready for patrons outside. He encouraged us to get a drink at the bar in the meantime. We ordered drinks and patiently waited but by the time it got to 8:45 we approached the host and asked him for a status update, leading him to realize that those same tables remained empty and that he could seat us.

When it came time to order, there were reportedly no servers available so the host came out and told us that he would be filling in as our server for the evening (not an encouraging sign). My wife has severe gluten and egg allergies and the “host-turned-server” did not inspire much confidence that her dishes would be prepared safely. We nonetheless ordered soup to share as a starter, and our couple friends did the same. We ordered our mains as well, including steak frites, the burger, and the salmon sandwich.

30 minutes later, our server/host was nowhere to be found and our soup starters also nowhere to be found. We asked a waiter’s assistant to check on our soup and it wasn’t until then that the server/host finally arrived with the soup at the table cold and without spoons. We asked for the soup to be warmed up which proceeded to take another 15 minutes. By that time, the host/server had disappeared for the evening and a new server presented himself to us, informing us that he had only just then submitted our mains to the kitchen, 45 minutes after we ordered...

When the mains finally arrived, it was well past 10pm and three of the four dishes we ordered arrived inedible and cold. I had requested my steak frites be prepared medium but they came out burnt, tough, and grey looking, along with what seemed to be only partially cooked and unseasoned fries. I am not exaggerating when I say that the steak frites could have been better prepared and plated by my four year old nephew. My wife’s burger came out charred, black, and inedible as well.

We explained the situation to our server who eventually brought over the manager, Chris. Chris informed us he would take care of our bill for us and prepare new mains - however that’s where his professionalism and niceties ended. In addition to our food (two soups and four entrees from the bar menu so nothing so expensive), we politely asked to be comp'd for the three drinks we had paid for before dinner due to the fact that they couldn’t seat us as scheduled. He refused despite multiple attempts to explain to him that had we just simply been seated on time, the drinks would also have appeared on our bill and comp’d by him. I expected professionalism and compassion from the manager of such a highly rated restaurant at a five star hotel, but he could not have been further from that, rudely and curtly telling me that he felt our party was “taking advantage of our situation”. I’m not sure who trained him, but clearly the customer is never right in his mind.

Bottom line: this restaurant does not deserve another penny from you, your family, or your friends. If this is the quality of experience they provide to their patrons, the good news is that they will not be operating much longer to see any of...

Save your time and money and stay far away from this disaster of a restaurant. I tried to do the business a courtesy and send an email to management before posting on a public page but they don’t care enough to respond so here we go -

10/09/23 We arrive for our 6:45 reservation, we are seated at 6:40. Hostess tells us she will be back with the wine list/cocktail menu. She does not return and we are finally greeted by our server, after sitting there for twelve minutes. He greets us, we are ready to order but we still haven’t had a chance to look over the wine list; we wanted to select a bottle. We make a decision and put our order in for food. The food runner brings our salad but we don’t have plates. The runner says she will be back with plates and never returns. At this point, we had been there for fifty minutes and we still do not have drinks and we are just looking at our salad, since we didn’t have dishes to enjoy it. The glass of wine I had ordered and the bottle has yet to be brought to the table. Turned out, they were sold out of the wine; we were given back the wine list without any alternate suggestions so we decided to do glass pours. It’s been an hour and we are just now getting wine after the first course. The potato and leek soup arrived - it was incredibly bland. Then, we received our entree. We had shared the filet. We requested medrare and it was served med well. The accompaniments with the filet were bland and room temperature. They refired the entree and we enjoyed our sides, while waiting. At this point, we were kicking ourselves for not listening to the negative reviews posted about the restaurant - how the food was bland, etc. I had second guessed keeping the reservation but here we are. No manager touch. Is there anyone even managing the restaurant? Our server brought us a bread basket while we waited for the refired entree. It came to the table and it was mediocre. The accompaniments were still bland and barely hot. The steak was barely seasoned. I would have offered to refire the sides along with the entree, so everything could be enjoyed together, as intended but I realize I am expecting too much. Our server was very nice and was trying to do what he could but the disappointment had far sunk in. We decided to close out without dessert (even though we were celebrating my boyfriend’s birthday) and went to the bar for a night cap. After drinking the $24 per glass Chablis throughout the night, I sat at the bar and asked for a glass of the house white wine. The bartender asked me, do I want “oaky and buttery”? I said, “Sure, what will that be?” He said it would be the glass of Far Niente, which I remembered being listed at the nice, inflated price of $35 per glass. I said, no thank you, and just ordered another glass of Chablis. He set a small white wine glass in front of me. I asked if I can have a burgundy glass. Its a $24 glass of wine so I would like to drink it out of the proper glassware. He gi. As if this experience wasn’t terrible enough, the bartender tried to upsell me on the most expensive glass of white wine as we were trying to do a night cap and put this night behind us. The ending interaction with the bartender made a bad night much worse. He set the glass in front of me and poured a taste. I go through the customary first taste and he asked how it was, I said the glass was hot. He ignored me and continued to pour the wine. We closed out and there were no “thank yous” from the bartender. At one of the finer restaurants in Sedona, at the Auberge, where your average price per head must be ~$125, you would think the experience would be worth your time and money. Sadly, it was a waste of both. Maybe it was because we aren’t staying at the property so we weren’t VIPs, we will never know. We still tipped 20%. Our server was very nice and professional but we were incredibly disappointed in our experience. We wanted to reach out to management instead of leaving negative reviews on...

I came here with my partner and we were very much looking forward to an incredible experience dining outdoors creekside. I made 6:15p reservations a month in advance and spoke directly & extensively about dining outdoors—creekside. I really appreciated their confirmation call earlier in the afternoon & we were both very excited.

Upon arrival, we sensed a bit of confusion and were soon led to an indoor table along a wall of windows. Ours was the only window that was broken shut (coupled with heat blowing directly from above). All other tables along the line of windows had two big open windows looking out over the creek. I questioned politely about our reservation outside (as I’m not one to ever complain) and the host seemed confused so we just sat at our table and enjoyed our indoor view.

Our server initially was prompt in offering water, but then took nearly 20 minutes to return for our drink order and everything else that followed (of note: there were not many guests at the time). Our drinks were amazing. Creative and balanced cocktails for sure.

After reviewing the menu, our server boasted about the newly promoted chef and his excitement about the menu items; he was also upfront about being out of one item. We ordered 5, to start: salad, soup, ceviche, mussels, and gnocchi. Our server was specific & directive with his recommendation for ordering the courses; which we loved.

Nearly 30 minutes later a different server, who shared they were assisting our server, told us they were out of the ceviche and the mussels & offered us another look at the menu.

A while later, our original server returned to tell us they were out of ceviche (this would have been 45 minutes after we ordered had the other server not let us know). We said we knew, and we knew about the mussels. To which he shared he did not think they were out of mussels. (lots of confusion).

To replace the ceviche & mussels, we ordered the NY steak (10oz $62) and when asked about temp, we politely requested perfect medium. He said he’d check on the mussels and if they were indeed out, he’d order the steak, and would be back to let us know.

No one returned for quite possibly another 30 minutes, at which time our server delivered three substantial dishes. Steak, gnocchi, and mussels. The steak - a definitive medium-well.

All in all, it was obviously really disappointing. The pluses were that they did have some of the best cocktails we’ve had in Sedona, the gnocchi dish was quite good, the location really does have its perks, and management was well-receiving of and accommodating to our feedback.

We are true hospitality patrons who love supporting businesses. We also love feeling respected and share from a place of hope for...